


The 12 Days of Jersey II

by alemara, wanderlustlover



Series: 12 Days of Jersey [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, Gen, Multi, New Jersey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-05 06:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alemara/pseuds/alemara, https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderlustlover/pseuds/wanderlustlover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starting on Christmas morning Laura and Amanda will be bringing you The 12 Days of Jersey II. A 100-word prompt every morning and evening for the 12 Days of Christmas (December 25th, 2013 to January 5th, 2014) detailing Christmas in Jersey, across several years.</p><p> </p><p>If you need a refresher, you can find Year One   <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/607129">here</a>!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Santa, won't you bring me the one I really need?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alemara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alemara/gifts), [wanderlustlover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderlustlover/gifts).



> **Prompt:** It's Tradition  
>  **Song:**   _All I Want For Christmas is You_  
>  **Year:** The First

“Only one.”

Grace is adamant, barricading the tree as if she fears Steve might buck tradition and decide to rip the paper off every colorful package underneath.

“Only one?”

She’s sure. “Everyone gets _one_ before church.”

Over his shoulder, Steve sees Danny leaning, arms folded, in the doorway. “A lot of help you are.”

“Christmas Eve presents are different,” he shrugs. “If you need help, ask the elf.”

Grace looks up at him with wide eyes. “I know which one -- if you can’t pick.”

He tips his head toward the tree. She, flushed and excited, begins the search for perfection.


	2. hang a shining star on the highest bough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Ostentatious Ornamentation  
>  **Song:** Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas  
>  **Year:** The First

“You can’t scale it. No matter what your throwback genes are telling you.”

Steve looked up from squinting at the tree to find Danny and roll his eyes, before sliding his gaze back to the tree. “I’m sure you must have broken a law or two of physics in there somewhere. It’s not possible that all of them fit.”

There were empty ornament boxes scattered everywhere nearby. Each Williams, from the tallest to the smallest, had at least one with lists cataloging the ornaments inside. Now on that tree.

“Christmas miracles,” Danny said, grinning. “You aren’t supposed to question them.”


	3. way up north where the air gets cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Hockey Hero, bitch Redux.  
>  **Song:** _Little Saint Nick_  
>  **Year:** The Second

“Center.”

“You kidding? He can barely skate.”

“Goalie?”

Danny’s laugh is a puff of delighted fog. “Sure, he can park himself in front of the net; he may accidentally stop one, if we hit them dead center.”

Steve’s busy lacing his skates, fingers clumsy in the cold, but not too busy to glare at Danny’s comment. “Please tell me its full contact.”

One brother-in-law nudges the other. “Defenseman?”

An appraising look, and: “ _Definitely_.” To Steve: “Extra points if you check him into the holly.”

“He can try.” Danny holds out a thick-gloved hand. “Up, on your feet, McGarrett. Game on.”


	4. up on the housetop, click, click, click

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Exterior Illumination (hanging lights on the house!)  
> Song: _Light of the World_  
>  Year: First Year

“You’re doing it wrong,” Danny’s voice throws up to where they are working on the lights. All hammer, nails and long strings of white icicle lights. Mr. Williams on the top of the ladder, and Steve perched like some overly large, impossibly compacted, gargoyle on the edge of the roof itself.

“Maybe it’s because you keep changing your mind about how he should be doing it, Danny,” his dad called down, before Steve’s got his mouth half open for more than to shake his head and smile. 

“Finally,” Steve said, overly loud, on purpose. “Someone who can see the light.”


	5. when the saints can employ us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Secret sibling plan  
>  **Song:** _One More Sleep ‘Til Christmas_  
>  **Year:** The Third

He would never have believed it, with the chaos and the yelling and the inability to maintain even the simplest of email chains, but the Williamses? Are _organized_.

It’s innocuous comments at breakfast, building to whispering in the hallway. When confronting them, he’s recruited, tasked with distracting Danny all day.

“But --” he says, blank, staring at the neatly wrapped and be-ribboned box presented to him Christmas morning, while five sleep-tousled Williamses beam identical triumphant grins his way.

“Hey,” says Danny, muzzy-pleased, rumpled in flannel pants, clutching coffee. “You think you’re the only one who knows how to run an end-around?”


	6. I know what I want and nothing else will do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Mama Williams’ present  
> Song: _I Know What I Want for Christmas_  
>  Year: The Second

“Is that china?”

Steve twisted, hiding the object. “It’s classified.”

“You can’t superglue china. Ask any of them. They all tried it once after breaking something. We can find a fix. Who was it for?”

Steve sat paused, torn between murder and betrayal at his hands, before he managed the single word. “You.”

“Ahh, well.” Mrs. Williams said, warm and kind, with no despair. “Do you know what the perfect replacement gift would be?”

There was that warning _blue_ Williams mischievous twinkle, but Steve waited, needing something. “You could make an honest man of my son one of these years.”


	7. oh that we could always see

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Childhood Christmas  
>  **Song:** _Christmastime Is Here_  
>  **Year:** The First

“--so _then_ we can come downstairs. Once the music plays.” Grace finishes from the backseat.

“Sounds strict,” Steve says. “What kind of totalitarian dictatorship is this, anyway?”

“The kind you can’t shoot your way out of,” mutters Danny, and swears at a Volvo trying to merge from the left.

“It’s the same every year, right, Danno?”

“You got it, Monkey.”

“Good.” Grace’s satisfied sigh fogs the window, turnpike signs flashing by. “I don’t want it to ever change.”

“Don’t worry, baby.” Steve’s leg is warm when Danny’s hand finds it, and Grace’s smile in the rearview is sleepy-sweet. “Christmas won’t.”


	8. there’s a picture on the mantle of boy who looks like me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Christmas Party at the old precinct  
> Song: _A Candle in the Window_  
>  Year: The Third

“He still giving you trouble?” One officer called out, loud over the music and crowd, like he actually remembered Steve’s ragging from last year. 

Steve didn’t. Wouldn’t. Couldn’t. None were true past the breath of the words going out, a year ago, ten minutes. That and the sharp, goofy grin. “Does he do anything else?”

“Must do somethin’ right,” a second countered, laughing and raising his cup in a toast. “You haven’t kicked him out yet.”

Steve’s headed-tip leaned toward a small smile, briefly finding Danny in that crowd, but he only said, “Doesn’t seem like this place has either.”


	9. a wintry fairy land

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Snowflakes  
>  **Song:** _Sleigh Ride_  
>  **Year** : The Third

“It’s easy,” Grace prompts, taking away Danny’s paper and patiently re-folding it. “You just can’t cut the side with the fold.”

“Looks like Steve’s got it,” says Mrs. Williams, coming in to watch their progress with interest. Steve, swiftly folding paper into neat triangles with precise angles, shoots a smug grin at Danny, surrounded by crumpled, abandoned paper balls.

“Did you learn origami in the Boy Scouts, too?” Grumbled, as Grace tries to fix his folding.

Steve only smiles angelically, finishes snipping intricate designs, unfolds a perfect lacy six-sided snowflake.

“One for the fridge,” says Mrs. Williams. “Who wants cocoa?”


	10. fall on your knees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Midnight Mass  
> Song: _Oh Holy Night_  
>  Year: Second

It’s holy in a way Steve doesn’t have words for.

Not the building, gorgeous and older than he expected, with its stories of the baptismal font Danny nearly broke and his sister scaling the priest on Kool-Aid one summer.

Not the choir, that is good enough, or the sermon, that Steve surprisingly appreciates. Not even the way Danny nudges his shoulder, unable to hide that smile after Grace has officially nodded off across their laps.

It’s the way he’s corralled in, sardine-packed, with the rest of them.

Part and parcel of the William’s family and their Christmas traditions.


	11. it doesn't show signs of stopping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Snowed In  
>  **Song:** _Let It Snow_  
>  **Year** : The Fourth

“Not much like Hawaii, is it?” 

Steve takes the steaming mug of tea Clara’s offering, shakes his head as he watches out the snow-blurred window. “Not much. Reminds me of -- ”

Interrupted with the shuffle of a door opening, Danny blown through in a stomp of boots and small fury of flakes, cheeks red above his scarf, hands rubbing.

“Even Rudolph’s not getting through that,” he says, makes a niece shriek, nuzzling her cheek with a frozen nose.

“Santa will,” she says, worried. “Won’t he?”

"Oh, he will." Danny glances at Steve, blue eyes twinkling. “Who needs reindeer when you’ve got a SEAL?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  _Sorry for the delay, folks! Enjoy! -- Laura_   
> 


	12. heaven knows, there’s a new kid in town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Gracie, The Elf  
> Song: _There’s a new kid in town_  
>  Year: The Second

“It’s a secret,” Grace whispers after roughly dragging him to the closest bedroom, and checking the hallway for someone tailing them in a way that should not make Steve feel that swell of pride but it does.  
  
She turns back, all business, which is far cuter than it is impedingly dictatorish at twelve, but he schools that smile trying to crack for looking speculative. Still holding the tiny bendable toy elf that had been hanging on the bathroom mirror.  
  
“You’re not supposed to tell people you have it, and you’re supposed to sneak it somewhere it’ll surprise the next person.”


	13. don’t forget the wine and whiskey (Christmas comes but once a year)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Prompt:** Holiday Spirit  
>  **Song:** _Christmas in Carrick_  
>  **Year** : The Second

“You sure we need this many?”

Looking out over a forest of multi-colored bottles: clear amber, coffee, deep cranberry red. Danny surveys them with a critical eye, shakes his head, turns toward the wall-to-wall fridges full of bottles of beer. “No; we definitely need more.”

Steve’s pushing the cart, waves off an offered sample of something fizzy and pale gold. “Danny, there are only ten people for dinner tonight, and only eight of them can drink.”

Danny’s considering a snowflake-spattered case. “You know the expression, Irish for St. Patrick’s Day?”

“Sure.”

“Well, we’re Irish for Christmas. Grab that seasonal, huh?”


	14. Over the hills and everywhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Unexpected Relatives  
> Song: _Go Tell It On the Mountain_  
>  Year: The Third

“Uncle Steve! Uncle Steve! He broke my teddy!” Was not supposed to be the next words to shatter the Christmas morning silence of fast, heavy breathing. 

Nor was Steve supposed to go from  _nearly there_ , face pushed into Danny’s shoulder, to falling off the bed, dragging the sheet with him as cover, eliciting a shriek and the flurry of pillow movement from Danny left above him.

But still there was a small, blonde, ringletted, young Williams in their doorway, in tears, holding said arm-injured bear out, only until Steve squinted, blinking at them both, asking, “Wasn’t that in your stocking?” 


	15. been an angel all year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Santa (or Santa Baby)  
>  **Song:** _Santa Baby_  
>  **Year:** The Second

Grace says she plays along for the little kids, but she gets as pink-cheeked as the terrible twins or the shy, golden-curled six year old cousin nervously sucking her thumb when “Santa” comes through the doorway, red-suited, bewhiskered, blue eyes twinkling a familiar smile.

Steve crouches down to the goggling children. One mumbles something unintelligible around her thumb, blushes red when the adults chuckle.

“Go on,” he says. “Tell him what you want.”

Tiny. “Don’t know.”

“Maybe a toy?”

Shaken curls. “Go first?”

“Say what I want?”

A nod. He looks at Santa, chest warm and tight. “He knows, kiddo.”


	16. do you see what I see

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Steve’s Been Adopted  
> Song: _Do You Hear What I Hear_  
>  Year: The Second

Danny never questioned whether his family would love Steve. 

Unless Steve was putting the fear of God and limb-loss into a person, everyone did. Goofy smile. Sharp whit. Honor. Loyalty. Dedication. They were bound to love him, but watching Steve let them is even better. 

Danny hoards those seconds no else sees like gold. The clueless willingness when someone drags Steve off or into a family tradition. Overawed surprise when someone wants his advice, or brings him anything. Or when the kids run to him.

Followed by his favorite -- that silent, helpless, blown-open, lingered-look, whisper of a smile after each. 


	17. trust a star to show us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Grace growing up  
>  **Song:** _Follow Now, Oh Shepherds_  
>  **Year:** The Third

 

Danny’s sitting in bed, staring at a cup of coffee he hadn’t had when Steve got up to hit the head.

“What’s the matter?” Joshed as he gets back under the covers, curls lazy towards Danny’s warmth. “Someone slip you instant?”

“Grace brought me coffee."

“Hmm.” Steve nudges his forehead into Danny’s side. “Where’s mine?”

“You know, it wasn’t so long ago she’d have run in here to wake me up at five am.”

A pause, before a long arm snakes across Danny’s stomach, thumb stroking twice. After a moment, quiet: “Just enjoy the coffee, Danno. You’ve still got her.”

 


	18. there's bound to be talk tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Freezing in the car  
> Song: _Baby, It’s Cold Outside_  
>  Year: The First

He caught Danny’s wrist. “Hitting it a fourth time won’t help.”

“It’ll make me feel better,” Danny snarled, shaking Steve’s hand. “You’re freezing, too.”

Steve shrugged, not arguing his temperature or the cars’. “So do something about _that_ instead.”

Danny stared a second or two, suspicious, annoyed, before he actually considered. “We haven’t had much time –“

“Nope.”

“—and this isn’t clearing up anytime soon—“ The sea of red lights around them wasn’t.

“Doesn’t look it.” Danny’s cell buzzed, Steve’s mouth twisting crooked. “And that will be her fourth check-in.”

But Danny reached for him instead, lips starting to curve, “C’mere.”


	19. been to the sea and back to the land

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Family: Immediate, extended, left behind, far away...and Steve  
> Song: _The White Snows of Winter_  
>  Year: The Fourth

Mrs. Williams is the only one who ever mentions him.

Everyone else goes jarringly silent, like their tongues got too big for their mouths. Danny, jaw tight, looking anywhere but at anyone else, when his mother recounts the year they rushed Matt to the hospital with acute appendicitis on Christmas Eve.

She hangs Matt’s ornaments. Plays his favorite Christmas album. Steadfastly hopeful, refusing to be infected by the prevailing attitude of Matt as the invisible, imaginary son.

Sitting with Steve, eyes sad, watching Danny leave the room, saying he knows what it’s like. Being far. Farther.

If never quite lost.


	20. flashbulbs and wine, and hold that smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Twelve Tiny Williamses  
> Song: _Christmas Pics_  
>  Year: Every single one

It happens every year.

Because a grandchild stumbles, shocked and awed, into a baffled moment about their parents being people – and _children –_ once, too. Or because one of the _Williams’ Wars of Sibling One-Up-Ance_ devolves into irrefutable proof thrusting.

The scrapbooks come out. Hundreds of captured Christmas’s past.

But the same faces filling them all, from the smallest, first wrapped in arms, to a blue-eyed, blonde and brunette mob. As kids; adults; with their own kids.  Every single one with frost bit cheeks, awkward haircuts, bright Christmas smiles in there among hilarious stills that require even more stories to explain. 


	21. a packful of toys means a sackful of joys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Stuffing Stockings  & Hiding Presents  
>  **Song:** _The Most Wonderful Day of the Year_ (from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)  
>  **Year:** The Second

“She knows about that one.”

Steve pauses, where he’s kneeling by the carpet. “She knows about a loose floorboard?”

“And how to unlock the eaves,” Danny says absently, shaking out the stocking and starting over in what Steve feels is a hopeless cause. You just can’t fit a baseball glove in the normal Christmas stocking. “And that one radiator panel that comes off.”

“There’s a radiator --”

“I used to use it for her birthday presents.” Danny frowns at the stocking. “This isn’t working.”

“So where am I supposed to hide this?”

Danny shrugs. “You want my suggestion? Someone else’s house.”


	22. where the love light gleams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Steve’s favorite carol  
> Lyrics: _I’ll Be Home For Christmas_ (Soldier’s Tribute)  
>  Year: The Second Year

“The one for soldiers?”

“The one,” Steve nodded, pushing up from the couch.

Danny followed him to the kitchen. “Little cliché and sentimental, don’t you think?”

“If hating it entirely for two decades was,” came through the refrigerator door.

“Why’d you tell Grace it was your favorite then? Why would you choose something you hate?”

Steve looked over the door, staring at Danny, _just Danny_ , for a long moment, as the music started in the living room. 

“See. Cliché and sentimental,” Danny repeated, head shaking, even through the obvious catch in his voice. “That’s you now, babe. All the way.”


	23. all is calm, all is bright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Prompt:** Christmas Eve, in the quiet late hours  
>  **Song:** _Silent Night_  
>  **Year:** Every One.

The house is silent; everyone else gone to bed as the night ticks past in swings of a grandfather clock pendulum.

Danny’s in the living room, sitting in the soft darkness, sipping wine, watching the tree lights glow on a riot of wrapping paper and ribbon beneath, glinting off ornaments.

Steve slides next to him on the couch, arm slipping across the back, shoulder the perfect height to lean on, which Danny does, comfortable, close.

Christmas is chaos. It’s tearing paper, loud laughter, music everywhere, and he loves it, but this his favorite. Steve warm, house peaceful, waiting.

It’s perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it for my half of 12 Days this year! Thank you all for playing along and once again making this little project one of my favorite parts of the holidays. Be sure to tune in tonight for our final prompt of the year, with Amanda!


	24. keep the fire burning bright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: In the quiet before Christmas morning (redux)  
> Song: _Wrap Me In Your Love_  
>  Year: The Third

“Still creepy. Even here.” It was disgruntled, as Danny burrowed close.

“Oh, look,” Steve laughed, low, warm, and awake in Danny’s ear. “It does work.”

The mutter into his neck was thick and blurred; pushing into Steve’s collarbone, so that all he could make out was “—stalkers and serial killers—” like Danny’s hand wasn’t possessively wide on his lower back.

“Wake up, Danno,” Steve whispered, wheedling. A hand sliding down the solid curve of Danny’s shoulder before he leaned down to kiss it slowly. “Your little monsters had been whispering about Christmas and sneaking through the hallway for twenty minutes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _If I don't post it if just never ends, yes?_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Alas, as Laura said to my soft complaining, _There's always next year!_
> 
> With this last prompt this is Amanda signing off for a second year of 12 Days of Jersey. I have loved it with all my heart once more, and all of the prompts from Laura, and comments from all of you, as well. Here's to keeping Christmas in my heart (and yours!) until we see you all again for the next round of this next year.


End file.
